Category: United States

The governing body of the American democracy is the Congress. It comprises the Senate and the House of Representatives. It is located in the Capitol Hill, showed in the picture above.

Many researchers derive democracy from ancient Greece. How could we compare ancient Greece and modern America? Ancient Greeks actually developed a proto-democracy: they happened to have kings and queens, depended heavily on military leaders and bequeathed elitism. America is a democracy. There have been no kings or queens of the USA. The head of the state is the President. The President resides in the White House.

Both the Congress and the White House are in Washington D.C. that is, the city named Washington in the District of Columbia. Washington D.C. is the capital of the USA.

District Columbia is on the American East Coast.

The state of Washington is on the West Coast.

We can get maps of the USA at the National Atlas website, NationalAtlas.gov.
We usually tell the name of our location along with the name of the state, if we give our address in America.

Washington state got its name after George Washington, the first American president. The state is the only American state named after a president.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

There are many places named Washington in America. George Washington remains a very prominent figure. He fought for American freedom in the Revolutionary War against England. He was President in years 1789-1797, after the War.

The American Revolutionary War had its written formulation
in the Declaration of Independence.

CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE DECLARATION

The Revolutionary victory brought another historic formulation,
the American Constitution.

CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION

American government was built “from scratch” by the Founding Fathers. Some, as Thomas Jefferson, described their perspectives on the State. Elective monarchy patterns as of Poland, for example, did not win ground. Poland was a chronically fallen country. The monarch was a lifetime position, and commoners hardly had civil rights. Hereditary monarchy forms as of England obviously did not offer any better security for the freedom of the people.

The constitutional reallocation of powers created a new form of government, unprecedented under the sun. Every previous national authority either had been centralized or else had been a confederation of sovereign states. The new American system was neither one nor the other; it was a mixture of both.[38]

The “new form of government” is democracy,
only by far more advanced than Greek prototypes.

1. “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

2. “The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.”

3. WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.

10. How can we compare the guidelines for legal practice, in Amendment 6 and Magna Carta? [Idea]

(Amendment 6) “In all Criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district …”

(Magna Carta) “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised or exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land …”

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

“In all Criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Answers

1a. Obviously, the Declaration did not introduce a separate or unequal status for women. The word man alone denotes human kind. The plural, men, means human beings, not human kinds. The use comes from classic Latin translations. To refer to a male, the noun man requires an article or a determiner as a,the, or this. Examples: Man belongs with the Homo sapiens. The man can read. [Back]

1b. No, it absolutely does not. The Declaration states that all people are equal in human rights and monarchy is not a work of deity (saying also, “the separateandequal Station). The document addresses the royalist belief, into a divine right to rule. [Back]

1c. No, the Declaration never was meant to set out legislation. The document also says, “Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable”, and it never was meant to make laws for suffering. The Declaration remains the most famous document to invoke human happiness, within the law, among the incentives to form a country. [Back]

2a. The monarch was George III of the house of Hanover. Often remembered as “Mad King George”, reported by some British resources as ill with porphyria, the king personally decided on policies for America. [Back]

2b. George III disabled administration and justice in America. People were forced to give up on political representation, to obtain civilian status. The royalist military took local residents captive, exploited the land and the people, and were not held responsible. [Back]

3a. No, it does not. The definite article in the phrase “appealing for the Rectitude of our Intentions” says the Causes are righteous. A phrase as appealing for _ rectitude might have such implications. It does not occur. [Back]

3b. The phrase the United States isexpresses a unitary concept for a country, as for Germany or France, for example. The phrase the United States are summons up the idea of the country by the people and for the people. USA constituent states have considerable autonomy. Both phrases are grammatically correct. [Back]

4a. Word sense changes over time and the word people may help show it. The noun is derived from the Latin populus. It did not connote nationality in ancient times and often referred to laying waste or degrading: perpopulor, to devastate, pillage; populabilis, destructible. Ancient Rome was a militarist culture oriented to status.

Nowadays, the noun people means a group of human beings, or a nationality. As a group, it takes a plural verb: The people here all speak English. As a nationality or ethnicity, the noun may take on the plural itself: The peoples of Europe have formed a Union.

The word order also comes from Latin. It could mean a rank, group, or a class of people. Cicero’s Philippics have many examples. We use the phrase in order to when we want to tell why or for what purpose something or someone is. In the sense of a group or type, the word ordo did not have to bring associations with an arrangement, as in a line or queue.

The language of the Constitution is modern American English. The document opens with the phrase We, the people, meaning the people of the United States of America. The language of the Great Seal mottos is ancient Latin. It has the phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum, which can be comprehended as A New People Come, that is, a new nation has come into existence. Feel welcome to read A new people come. [Back]

4b. The Constitution addresses the issues named in the Declaration: establishes the legislative (Article 1), the executive (Article 2), as well as the judiciary (Article 3). It provides against absolutism, instituting impeachment from office. It limits potential by royalist or foreign influence, requiring of the Head of State to be a born American citizen, elected President in free elections. The maximum of two terms of four years in office discourages attempts at hereditary government. Article 4 guarantees a republican form of government, and Article 6 declares the Constitution the binding law of the land, denying the idea of a divine right to govern: no religious tests are allowed as qualifications for an office. Article 7 predicts ratification for adopting constitutional legislation. [Back]

5a. The phrase derives from a larger fragment, habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, dated on the English king Edward I. The writ ordered detainee cases to be evaluated in courts of law, with the persons present, to prevent indeterminate incarceration. The fragment is a Latin subjunctive and can be interpreted as (so) that you have the person in court. Similar phrases: habeas corpus ad respondendum, for the detainee to answer in proceedings; habeas corpus ad testificandum, for the detainee to testify. Nowadays, these are the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to guide administration of justice. [Back]

5b. The Habeas Corpus Parliament passed The Habeas Corpus Act in 1679, during the reign of Charles II. Habeas corpus is effective in the USA, England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Most countries have equivalent legislation, such as the Criminal Procedure Act in Scotland, or article 40.4 of the 1937 Irish Constitution. The European Convention on Human Rights, Article 5, says, “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person.” [Back]

6. The word attainder comes from the French atteindre, to reach, hit. The bills allowed punishment without trial. They were banned as violating the principle of separation of powers. We may compare Montesquieu on the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.

The Latin word factum meant a deed, act, or exploit. Retroactivity,as ex post facto laws are also called, is forbidden in the USA. Legality of an act may not be disputed with use of regulations adopted after the fact. [Back]

7. There have been disputes in the US over the scope of presidential military command. Obviously, in case of a war, it would not honor the civilian authority to have the president the rank of a corporal. However, in the Constitution, the phrase “when called into the actual service of the United States” would be redundant, should the command belong with the President simply as In Office.

The Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote, “The propriety of admitting the president to be commander in chief, so far as to give orders, and have a general superintendency, was admitted. But it was urged, that it would be dangerous to let him command in person, without any restraint, as he might make a bad use of it. The consent of both houses of Congress ought, therefore, to be required, before he should take the actual command.”

Justice Robert Cooper Grier stated: “The President is not only authorized but bound to resist force by force. He does not initiate the war, but is bound to accept the challenge without waiting for any special legislative authority.” [Back]

8. The personal pronoun he remains is legal use for both genders. Here, it is an anaphora to refer to the President. Anaphoras refer back in discourse: “When called into the actual service, the President becomes Commander-in-Chief. He may require the opinion …”

Let us compare Article 5 of the European Convention: “Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be deprived of his liberty …”

Modern linguistics proposes the forms he or she as well as s/he for short, to avoid anaphoric ambiguity. [Back]

9. The President has the right to pardon even capital punishment convicts. The limitation on impeachment is to prevent royalist practices that appointed irremovable officials. [Back]

10. Magna Carta does not say that detention is justifiable in criminal cases only. It also has forms of punishment that American codes reject, such as exile or mutilation. The Carta does not state that judgment requires lawyers, and the laws of the land do not provide for a proper place of judgment.

The Declaration describes, among the Causes, “FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury: FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences. The Declaration adds, HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.” The Carta never gave the idea as well as ideal for the Amendments. Read about the Bill of Rights. [Back]

11. The people have the right to be inviolably secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, and no Warrants are to be issued, unless upon a probable cause to be supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly to describe the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. [Back]

12. In all Criminal prosecutions, the law warrants a speedy and public trial for the accused, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime occurs; the law requires that the judiciary is identified by the administrative, the accused to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have witnesses in his favor, and to have legal Counsel for his defense. [Back]

13. The word enumeration comes from Latin. Latin numerals were letters of the alphabet. For example, X meant 10, XX meant 20. Nowadays also, enumeration does not have to mean digits. It often means naming, presenting.

The Founders realized the Constitution did not name all possible rights and it was impracticable for it to make all regulations. The Amendment says the fact a matter is presented (enumerated) in the Constitution does not make it more important than other rights the people have; the fact a particular right is not in the Constitution does not mean it belongs under federal powers. [Back]

The Declaration of Independence is the formal proclamation of American independence from England. The Continental Congress agreed and announced the Declaration on July the 4th, 1776.
July the 4th is a national holiday in the USA.

The typescript below renders the original print. The Declaration printer, John Dunlap, used a Caslon font and a print layout that capitalized nominals, that is, nouns and forms to derive from nouns, with big letters.

The purpose of the typescript is not correction. No one might correct a historic document. The typescript is to show the print manner of those times. Especially young learners might benefit with clarity on that. The language style of the Declaration of Independence is oratorial; it invokes spoken language.

DECLARATION TEXT
(public domain translation by Teresa Pelka, 2016)

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.— –That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their Exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation :

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us :

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States :

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World :

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent :

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury :

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences :

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies :

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Signed by ORDER and in BEHALF of the CONGRESS,

JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT.

ATTEST. CHARLES THOMSON, SECRETARY.

PHILADELPHIA : PRINTED BY JOHN DUNLAP.

PHILOLOGIST NOTES

John Dunlap printed his broadside already on the day of the proclamation, July the 4th 1776. The Philadelphia printer, bookseller, and Revolutionary War soldier, he made about 200 copies. He was evidently well capable of the prevalent print convention of those times, to capitalize nouns, noun phrases, and linguistic forms that derived from nouns. He had very little time to complete the print, however.

… a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes …
Please compare the “light and transient Causes”.

… whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise …

Result of time limitations, as above.

… the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within …
We may compare the “mean time” and the adverbial “meanwhile”

“Judiciary Powers”, “Standing Armies”, “Civil Powers”, and similar structures are noun phrases that embrace the adjective along with the noun.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
We may compare the “Consent of the Governed”, as above in the original. “The Governed” means people, persons. The structure works in language as a noun, hence the capital letter.

FOR quartering … protecting … cutting off … imposing …
Gerundive forms are not capitalized, as they derive from verbs. We may compare the verb phrase “Petitioned for Redress”: it derives from the noun phrase “Petition for Redress”.

… constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive …
The phrase refers to the condition of being hostage, prisoner. The word “captive” means “prisoner”, a noun.

… whose Character is thus marked by every act …
We may compare “Acts of pretended Legislation”, and “Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right”.

… the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled …
The adjective “assembled” belongs with the phrase “Assembled General Congress”.

… solemnly Publish and Declare …
Please compare the comment for the “Petiton for Redress”, above.

… That these United Colonies …
The Declaration style is oratorial, it relates to spoken language.

… . And for the support of this Declaration …
Please mind the time limitations the circumstances imposed on the print.

The print uses the colon the way we mostly use the semi-colon nowadays.

THE HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENT

56 Representatives of the 13 states and the Second Congress President signed the engrossed copy of the Declaration. Warren G. Harding, later an American president, coined the phrase “the Founding Fathers”. The phrase became used to mean the Signatories of the Declaration and the Framers of the Constitution.

The most prominent signature in the center is that of John Hancock from Massachusetts, the President of the Second Continental Congress.

SIGNATURES ON THE ENGROSSED COPY CLICK TO ENLARGE

The desktop view here displays the names of the signatories arranged as in the original document.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jun.

Thomas Lynch, Jun.

Arthur Middleton

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

We may know the present-day engrossed copy as the Stone’s engraving of the Declaration of Independence. The copy was not literally incised in stone, yet we can say it is in stone, using a figure of speech.

ENGROSSED COPY OF THE DECLARATION CLICK TO ENLARGE

An 1823 facsimile of the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration came after attempts to conciliate with England. The Olive Branch Petition was one of those efforts. Thomas Jefferson wrote the “original rough draught” of the Declaration in June 1776. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the text co-editors.

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Recent Posts: Teresa Pelka

I have never interpreted the Great Seal Novus Ordo Seclorum as a New Order of the Ages. I realized my comprehension was different from the official, over the Internet. With Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence at my side, I will try to defend my view: the Seal says a new nation has become.

In most simple terms, philology is a study of words. Words that get to be spoken, words that get to be written, words as they happen to become human thinking matter. Words in texts old and words in texts new: if you think about this profession, you need to be fond of words.

Human brains need to be live structures for grammar, and these have simultaneous processes. When we use the Present Simple, our paths for the Perfect Progressive for example do not become “switched off”. Are there really “stative verbs”?